diogenes

Semi-retired journalist who lived and worked in the USA, Australia and Mexico for many years.

I had been producing 1000 words, plus, a day in various newspapers for about 20 years. I found I missed this discipline like others miss their tobacco, alcohol, other drugs, or sugar fix.

For folks of my vintage, computers arrived like aliens from another world. I had done most of my work on an IBM Selectric and a Brother word processor, then seen it cut and pasted into place in the publication. Practically overnight, newspapers switched over to computerized everything: writing, editing, printing and publishing. What a huge difference this made to the industry: most good, a little bad. Now, the world would collapse without computers which are part of nearly everything we do.

Hubpages was a revelation to me. I had played around with my own website and adsense for several years, but received little attention and had no idea of what I wanted to acheive. I still am not sophisticated on how to make money doing this, despite all the advice from other, awe-inspiring hubbers, who combine decent writing with an acute business sense.

But I am having a lot of fun resourcing and writing again. Clicks are starting to come and I may even make a few quid after all.

So, good luck and happiness to all my fellow hubbers and others who find my humble work through the search engines.

Much of the economic foundation of which has become the vast nation we know today as the United States of America, is due to the suffering and near demise of a sizeable, yet humble rodent, the Beaver. Unassuming...

The Tibetan Mountain of Shishapangma is, at 26,335 feet, the 14th highest mountain in the world. Also known locally as Gosainthan, it's summit was the last over 8,000 peak to be achieved. This was not due to the...

After Britons and others go to vote in the referendum on June 23rd, can the winning majority of "Outers," if indeed they are the victors, assume it is all home and hosed and a mere formality for the UK to say, "Nice...

Our media and papers are a'buzz with little apart from the "In or Out" campaigners with just about 9 weeks to go before the country votes to remain part of the European Union, (The Ins), or call it a day and go it...

. Having just taken a month traveling around Spain and a slice of jolly old England, I wondered if I had learned anything to pass on that hasn't been said a thousand times, a hundred ways? Probably not, but let's push...

. I think the moment I finally realized I'd had a gutful of tourism was when we were asked to pay twenty pounds to enter Westminster Abbey just half an hour before the 4:00 pm closure for the day. While we hovered,...

Madeira Wolf Spider It has been a little quiet in the world wide web of spiders of late, but two species have been getting some attention recently. The first, a chap I want to showcase today is rare, threatened, little...

I wish I could ask the Almighty some questions about the events in this story. Not that He could come up with any satisfactory answers, I am sure, for the suffering and loss endured by the people involved.
My hub...

As it was a typical November morning today in jolly auld England - grey, damp and raining, I crawled back in bed with Bill after my morning coffee and toast.
I have done this many times over the last 20 or so years....

If I knew then what I know now!
Curiously, at least to me, the first article I published on HP was about my newly acquired pet budgies. Now, more than 6 years up the road of parrot prison warden, and seasoned Hubpage...

Allen Keys: The Flat-Packer's Best Friend.
Do you ever pause when opening the kitchen drawer - the one that you stick all the odds and ends in - or if you're a bit tidier, the tool box, and suddenly wonder why are so...

There is no denizen of the wide world of reptiles which attracts more emotion than the Elapids, among which are found the venomous Cobras. This ranges from outright fear, through respect all over their range, to even...

It becomes law in Britain today, October 1, 2015, making it illegal for anyone in a car carrying one or more children under 18 - to smoke.
As you can imagine, the law is proving very controversial especially as our...

India's Alarming Snake-Bite Fatalities.
Imagine if the UK, the USA or even Australia – with more venomous snakes than any other continent – were reporting 250,000 bites from venomous snakes per year, 50,000 of...

Yeah, girls, don't be fooled, I'm BAD!
As all the bad boys and girls age, much of the “badness,” the arrogance, selfness and conceit, etc., of the young and hormone-charged, changes. Many become much gentler,...

The 1960's were a long time ago. I mean, you would have to be at least 60 today to even remember them. And even at 60-years-old, in 2015 you would have only been five years old when the 60's arrived, hardly mature...

As we watch with sinking hearts the TV channels preparing to chair this asinine contest once again to help us decide whom to vote for, it seems that limitless idiocy is the real governing creed in the UK.
There has...

One of the most difficult acts of personal grooming for people of any age, but especially the aged, is clipping the toenails.
In Mexico, where I lived for many years, just about any beauty salon will undertake the...

I'm afraid the old way to write this title would have alarm bells ringing all over the HP editorial office and Google screaming “Foul!”
But I will assume you know what I mean and understand my reticence in not...

Can we still hope for this wonderful creature??
William's remarks on TV today regarding conservation of the world's animals under threat from man's expansion and stupidity were long overdue and welcome. He made the...

A Simple Introduction to Stem Cell Treatment
For the uninitiated, even an investigative journalist, wandering into the area of Stem Cell treatment of disease, and the ongoing research, is like a book-worm gnawing his...

Tired of being alone after five years of the state, I decided to join a dating site and chose POF, Plenty of Fish, one of the world's largest, so we are told.
These rather strange agencies, products of the Internet,...

Electronic Banking: Swan Song for Bad Check "Artists"
Where once people wrote checks - or cheques in the UK - for many of their purchases, especially the larger ones, to obviate the risk of carrying a lot of ready...

There are many things in our lives that can take on the mantle of friend or foe, depending on how we use them, find them, or get in their way at the wrong time.
We can all thing of a hundred examples: fire is the one...

We don't often celebrate anniversaries of an event 800 years old. The outstanding exception is the subject of this article, the Magna Carta.
Magna Carta, Latin for Great Charter, was authorized by King John and a...

.Not much pleasure in reviewing books, so this scribe rarely attempts the task...and if it's boring writing it, it surely must be worse reading it. It's not going to happen herein; the idea of this humble article is to...

Many moons ago, when the meaning of the sanctity of life was not as well defined within this writer, I used to fish a lot in Mexico's Sea of Cortez, also known as the Gulf and the poetic sounding Vermillion Sea. The...

This contributor has published many articles on Hubpages and elsewhere about insects and "creepie-crawlies, in particular, arachnids. They, like snakes, have been interesting because many of them have unecessarilly...

Their Blood Soaked into the Prairie
How marvellous it must have been to have been born in the beginning of the Nineteenth Century when the New World desperately needed people, or thought they did, and the United...

You know all those little things in life that form a nagging "white noise" in the back of your mind constantly? I could write a long list of them, and I bet you can, too. They are small things you should probably do;...

It can't happen to you until it does. I have no idea why my body after 74 years of hard living with no apparent effect, decided to let me down this June past; nearly finish me all together and, as the street walker...

Fighting For Greener Pastures
Immigration and Population Density
One of our leading talking heads on Sky News, complaining about UK population this morning, said, "Anyone can see there are too many people here!" And...

Many contributers on Hub Pages take on the mantle of being members of the Fourth Estate. Especially when they are political commentators. Most people know vaguely what the term means: there are the first two "Estates,"...

The Humpback Anglerfish: Is this the Ultimate Female Power-Play!?
In my quest to bring you more and more weird fellow travellers on Spaceship Earth, I have almost exhausted the surface of the planet and even the upper...

Now we've got capon racing!
With much hand-rubbing of anticipation, I settled back yesterday to watch the first race of the 2014 F1 season from Melbourne.
All the usual race preliminaries were followed, and off...

Of all the subjects that I have published on HP, indeed, those that have interested me the most during my newspaper career, have been on the myriad life-forms which ride along through space on Mother Earth with us.
...

Friends who urge me to write more on the wierd and less known creatures which share our starship, Earth, have encouraged me to visit Lakes Xochimilco and Chalco, found in Central Mexico. (You did, all five of you).
...

Parasites, Perhaps Evolution Means Us to have 'Em?
Moving on from bacteria and viruses which permantly occupy the human body, we are made aware of larger parasites which make a temporary home inside us.
Tape Worms,...

A Nice Cuppa Tea. You will never, semantically, get a nasty cup of tea in Britain. These days, realistically, you will rarely get a nice one, either, made as it is from a stale tea-bag. But you will always be asked to...

Part One...
Through the ages, "common" salt has been imbued with a mystique that goes far beyond its obvious use: a flavoring found on all the world's tables.
The word "Salacious" was developed from the old Roman...

Britain: Commercial Greed. The Size of the Soap's the Clue
...and a look at some Yuletide banking (mal) practices.
Visitors to the UK, especially our Cuzzies from across the pond, might be excused for thinking some...

She averages 15 feet in length, but has surpassed thirty; has a huge jaw a man could sit in, lined with multiple rows of formidible triangular teeth, measuring more than 3 inches (8cms) long; just reaching early...

R.O.B. (Rip-Off Britain) is in Full-Swing!
Do you ever feel like one of those aphids beloved by ants, assisted with some of the basics of life and protected from a few of the vagaries of existance, so you can be...

Regular readers of my articles in the past would know that animal toxins have been regularly featured, especially those from the Arachnids and Snakes. Until yesterday, however, I had not realised that the most toxic...

Pass me the curds and whey!
Many people in the UK are rather fond of spiders, if a little nervous around the larger ones, like our "Giant House Spider," a creature of up to 4 inches in diameter. The arrival of one of...

This writer must add his inadequate but respectful voice into a paen to the many Italian agencies and salvage experts and workers who managed, over less than 24 hours, to raise this half-million ton vessel from its...

Caught Between Beauty and the Beast.
Only occasionally - thankfully - in life we are faced with an urgent decision to take one course of action or another to avoid disaster - or, at least, discomfort.
And so it was...

Travel Agents? Kiss my Patootie!
In my frequent traveler days, travel agents were a pleasure to deal with. They lacked the plethora of destinations available today and often had a good idea of what your preferred...

Despite being in my time - and in my own opinion - arguably, one of the world’s greatest lovers, I have had some decidedly misogynistic moments lately.
Not ones of the kind which would have me taking up cudgels...

Owls…”Solemn Solomon of the Shade.”
It constantly amazes this reporter to be reminded just how long many of the creatures who share our world have actually been here, compared to our own insignificant tenure.
...

Eat Your Cheval, Ros-Beefs!
“We’re sorry, we’re sorry, we’re sorry, of course, There wasn’t much beef but plenty of horse. It wasn’t our fault, we’re victims you see That you thought it was lamb, but...

North Americans - or Europeans using English for that matter - have people from many nationalities wandering amongst them as residents or tourists. But none using English (as they would insist they do) are more exotic...

In an unfortunate incident, apparently a fox entered a home in London and bit a baby, biting off the tip of her finger and causing our huge cadre of hysterics to scream for a fox cull by any means possible and rid our...

In a magical and unforgettable few minutes of filming, shown on the UK news channels and - I am sure - all over the world communication between man and a wild creature was brought into our living rooms.
A Bottle-Nosed...

What a utilitarian yet useful word is “Earth,” used to describe the common soil of your garden; the whole of the world we live in, and 17 little known elements without which we would find it hard for world...

Box Jellyfish: Earth’s Most Deadly Creature.
This journalist has many wonderful memories from 8 years of living in Australia. But it was never really relaxing swimming there as you were always made aware of sharks...

The “Sound of Music” and the von Trapp Family.
Every Christmas, the main cable channels in Britain - BBC 1 and 2, Itv 1, Channel 4 and 5, dig through their archives cramming as much free archived rubbish into our...

This date in late December brings a surge of new energy and hope. Nothing to do with Christmas, which is seen as something of an abomination by many these days, nor New Year’s Eve festivities which are left to those...

A “Murder” of Crows!
Is it surprising the collective noun for a flock of Crows is a “Murder of Crows?“…read on!
Man considers mammals to be the most intelligent family of creatures with himself occupying...

WWW.Willie’sWillyWorks.com
Prince William - Willie to his mates, has proven to be a better man that his wimpish exterior would suggest. He has achieved what any red-blooded man would have been ecstatic to attempt:...

Hubbers and researchers who have followed some of my articles for the last 3 years will know that I specialize - or used to - in writing about snakes and arachnids - spiders and scorpions, etc., creatures that give many...

The Fifth Horseman of the Apocalypse
(The one we should fear the most).
"The Four were Red, Black, Pale and White
That rode to Judgment Day that night.
In order, white, red, black and pale,
The watching hordes...

We were treated to a spectacular event in our skies over England and Ireland last night.
For once, it was a clear night suffused with the heavenly firmament, as it is poetically know, of stars and planets as the Milky...

…The assassination of two young, unarmed female police officers in Manchester, Britain, on Tuesday, who were apparently lured to their death by shooting, along with a hand-grenade for good measure, by a person...

Today’s Mexico: Snog, Marry, AVOID?
As Mexico and I age, we get less compatible with one another. I suppose the fault has to be mostly mine, after all, Mexico is about 500 years old since the Conquest and the Indian...

.The following account is the actual operation a dear friend of mine experienced this week and told to me in three emails which I have patched together and have her permission to publish on HP.The surgery was for...

In earlier times, wooden sailing ships presented a wonderful alternative lifestyle for rodents who enjoyed traveling in a home ideally suited to their needs. Many vessels carried an edible cargo and they all carried...

Being a plant is not an easy life. They are subject to about one hundred different attacks from predators, fungi, and diseases like Fire Blight.
A came across this problem from a complaint from a friend in Ben...

“Single-mindedness is all very well in cows or baboons; in an animal claiming to belong to the same species as Shakespeare it is simply disgraceful.“ Aldous Huxley…
How many hubbers, or online visitors, remember...

Visitors to Great Britain this week would have been surprised to switch the hotel TV on and see what appeared to be a computer game in full progress with motorbikes tearing around on public roads at suicidal speeds.
...

Many hubbers research articles in answer to a friend, or family member’s, personal condition or interest.
Such is the case for the article today. The writer is no ophthalmologist, or any other “ist,” except...

A friend who lives on a farm in a little village near Dallas, told me of some fascinating little birds with some unusual habits who live on the grasslands of the property. I thought she said they were called...

As we move through June and July, our regular walks through the country lanes are augmented by the sight of little, bumpy green berries appearing on the briars all along our way.
These of course are the young...

Growing up in Britain, we were a doggy family and cats, who killed song birds and yowled at night, were not in favor. We never owned one and next door’s got short-shrift when found trespassing and eyeing our garden...

What the hell is wrong with this ageing hack? I love most life forms on the planet, even some of the two-legged ones.
Why, then, of all man’s useless endeavors, does the Queen’s Speech leave me feeling so twitter...

.Imagine my surprise when I returned to England and found it had been moved a couple of thousand miles south and now perched on the edge of the Sahara!
Mexico had been the home of choice for many years, before that,...

The swift might be considered a harbinger of better weather in temperate Europe, if it was easy to see them. It isn’t, and the migratory swift is one of the most elusive and interesting birds on Earth.
...

We had a brief look at that Jekyll and Hyde of birds, the Cuckoo yesterday. I was awed to see some hubbers had never heard the bird’s distinctive call, the sound of lore and legend, as well as making a lot of...

People in Britain have always associated the cuckoo with the coming of spring. It’s hypnotic mating call was heard anywhere there was woodland. The bird seemed able to use the talents of a ventriloquist as well, it...

Most of us who have been around on Hub pages for a while - say, over two years - find we have a circle of fellow writers who we enjoy reading regularly, and appear to feel the same about us. This, plus all the...

When the vultures resting in the trees by the Parsi Burial Wall in Bombay (Mumbai) discussed going out to have an Indian, they used to mean just that, not, as in Britain, a nice curry in a local restaurant, but they...

From the 1950’s, when war planes became commonly able to break the “sound barrier” and become “supersonic,” the loud “sonic booms” became an everyday occurrence in the skies of those regularly deploying...

Yellow Fever: Re-emerging Anew…and The Panama Canal.
Travelers visiting the parts of the world where Yellow Fever holds sway are advised to become vaccinated against this life-threatening illness. The effective...

Surely no one needs reminding why May 5th is an important day in Mexico? You do?? OK, in brief, May 5th, 1862, was the day a Mexican army defeated and routed the French in Puebla, the first defeat that European nation...

Piiiiiiiiiiin…ping! An annoying sound in Britain or North America as a mosquito dives into a camper’s, or fisherman’s ear, the buzzing so high- pitched from the mozzie’s rapid wing movement it sounds more like a...

Well, they all thought their prayers had been answered. Legions of flat-chested women would now be able to look like their favorite celebs - Dolly Parton, or Jordan maybe. No longer would they need to wear padded bras...

On Being Fat in a Thin Man’s World.
Despite the title, this hub is about some of the problems all ample people (to say the most!), not just the author, face on a daily basis when they become overweight or even -...

Is it any wonder that our teenagers have, in many cases, opted out from formal education? It’s perhaps not so much the cost and the fact that no jobs are guaranteed at the end of their studies anyway, but the very...

The last great love is of the universe An Old Man Replaces Love for One with Love for All
He still has illusions, plans and schemes - hope never dies in man it seems. He still salutes each sunshot day, and waits for...

Yellow snake, part of an illegal consignment found in Sydney airport recently If any Thai hubbers, or those with contacts in Thailand are reading this hub would they please contact their political representatives, or...

Life is to be part of all we feel and see... The Eternal Touch
I closed my weary eyes today and after a moment’s pause, my body seemed to expand, just like diaphanous gauze.
Larger and larger I became, Until I...

Evne in Britain, thousands of dogs and cats are abandoned every month. Many are euthenized. For every dog, cat, bird, fish and the rest kept with understanding and love, there are thousands not so lucky.
Dogs kept...

Many capital cities were changed around in the last 100 to 150 years, some being built from the ground-up. The one that stands out is probably Brasilia which rose from the jungles of Brazil in 1960 and, after many...

I was blown away watching a documentary on BBC a couple of days ago about the prevalence of phone-sex in the UK (And I’m sure, the USA).
That’s not where some horny guy or gal reaches orgasm by using their cell...

Love is love regardless of gender? We seem to have an awful lot of focus on the Gay community at present, mainly concerned with their future ability to tie the knot legally.
They don’t look like getting past the...

Things seen to be British...but do they add up to a national characteristic called "Britishness?" Can there be any manifestation of blind nationalistic fervor more irritating than the bloody British harping on daily...

I was half asleep in front of the TV today when a program came on called “Birds Britannia.” Part of a four-part documentary about our birds of the air, sea, rivers and hedges.
The episode I was watching featured...

Despite government austerity and optimism, there can be little doubt that the UK - Britain - is in a hell of a mess.
Personal and corporate debt are at unsustainably high levels. Inflation has many families to the...

.My introduction to Mexico, way back in 1969, was not in steamy Acapulco, up-market Puerto Vallarta, not even laid- back Mazatlan.
After arriving in the ‘States earlier in the year from Oz, I had been working for a...

Credit to: coolfreeimages.net My Favorite Days of the Week, and Why.
I suspect that most of us have their favorite days of the week and could put them in order after a bit of thought.
Worker bees of the 9 to 5...

Andy Murray typifies the type of Brit Aussies truly dislike, the "Whingeing Pom." I don’t have the exact stats., but many thousands of British people every year, mainly families, are being invited to go and live in...

The Saracens (Moslems) don't quite see the Crusaders as Heroes! Europe: The Pigeons Come Home to Roost.
It is unfortunate for the modern generation of European nations that so many atrocities were committed against...

Jupiter's juggling act occasionally fails When this sci-fi movie was made 60 years ago, we knew relatively little about bodies in space that have - and will - collide with our planet.
The benign aliens arriving in...

No! You immediately say; that gay bullshit is for nancies and girls.
Or Yes! Blokes should do what they want and have long hair or short hair as the whimsy takes them.
Well, that got us exactly nowhere.
As most...

credit cartoon lost fm and speed wheels. This contributor lived for some years in Mexico and Spain. Therefore I can communicate in Spanish. I want a beer, a meal a woman, I know the right words…I can even write a...

The Royal "Yacht" Britannia in better days The Dying Ant Continues to Feed.
Entomologists have described seeing dying ants, their bodies severed in two parts, continuing to make feeding motions, despite having no...

Britain Disintegrating Like Spit on a Hot Griddle
Those who care, weep for this once great nation, now little more than a shadow of its former self.
Almost within living memory, the sun literally never set on part...

"just a kiss my love!" "Ah, but what comes next!?" Take that smile off your faces, you lot! Let’s get serious here.
First of all, the wedding ceremony during which the young bride will be symbolizing her triumph...

North Foreland Light suffered with dad's attentions! What Shagger Pete pretended to be! Why I never Forgave Dad
When dads were given out, I got the booby prize. I won’t go through how he lied to my mother to win...

"Hey, bro, what's goin' on!? Tongue fully replaced by parasite in this picture. One of the world’s most amazing parasites was found inside a fish for sale in the UK, and quite a few reports of more finds by fishermen...

Yes, 2012 will be unique: Absolutely guaranteed: even if the world’s economy collapses, we are plunged into WW3, or the Little Green Men from space finally arrive and conquer us.
Why do I say that you may ask?
...

There are so many revolting personages on Television these days, it’s hard to know where to start to lambaste them.
It’s all subjective, of course: one man’s meat is another’s poison, and all that, but, for...

This was to be a New's Year's Bulletin, but it seems to stand alone..
It is no secret that the Conservative Government and “Auntie,” the BBC, have no great affection for one another. Margaret Thatcher always...

If you ask many people what great mystery of life they would like answered, it may be whether of not reincarnation exists.
Whether we return at all, in what form; as we are now or in some completely new arrangement of...

Mexicans, in fact, Hispanic races in general, are not noted for their exemplary treatment of animals. Having lived in Mexico for many years, I have found that reports of cruelty there may be unfounded in many cases....

Although we should admire and show our gratitude for their well-meaning efforts, the thousands of demonstrators world-wide against Capitalism and the infamous “one percent” would seem to be doing little real good.
...

Underpaid workers roll excellent cigars near Catemaco A Brujo (male witch) plying his trade Ask any Mexican male if he believes in witches and witchcraft and he’ll deny it with laugh. Put the same question to a...

We have all had motor vehicles which served us well and we liked, as well as the lemons which gave us nothing but trouble from the day we drove them off the lot.
Often, it wasn’t the fault of the manufacturer but...

Eight to go and I’m Out of Here!
Now there is 392 hubs attributed to Diogenes on this hub account. More than most; fewer than many. There could have been many more in the year and a half of writing. Pleading...

Credit theindianblogger.com My new Acer system has gone bottoms-up and my old and creaky HP laptop is shuddering under the burden. My mobile broadband dongle is trying to electrocute me: I made this bed and I have to...

He must have learned how in Scientology!
While we stick to our “old” habits, the world often moves on without us. Things which were once the cutting edge of technology has now become old hat for the teenagers...

Have you caught on yet? All the crap foisted on you daily by the media and the press is someone else’s reality and has no bearing on what’s happening in your life at all…even if you’re there in the disasters,...

It is always pleasing to some of us to hear the price of precious metals has dropped world-wide. Gold and silver usually fluctuate in tandem; rise and fall together; silver always the poor cousin of course. At the...

Did you miss me, son!? The living don’t have much to celebrate about unless you’re Chinese this month; if they were conscious, the West’s dead might be happy they are that way and out of it!
That being the case...

It seems as if more and more hubbers are writing good poetry.
I had my day with the muse and finally published a small anthology which gave closure, as it were. Well, what do you do with the damn things when all the...

Mulege
Thinking of where to go this winter? There is a special place in Mexico’s Baja Peninsula that is more like an oasis in the Sahara than a village on the Sea of Cortez.
South Baja has many delights, but the...

Police reach the heights in a cherry picker to arrest demonstrators at Dale Farm Oct 19 We were treated to a disgusting display today of the agents of the wealthy establishment using overwhelming force to move in on...

Blackpool in summer: Beach anyone!? During my early morning musings today, my fevered mind settled on the subject of names of population centers and whether they had any effect on the residents.
The persons who...

The Mexican Bracero Helped Build the United States.
Sometimes you love 'em; sometimes you don't. Sometimes you lay down the red carpet and hang out the flags of unity, sometimes you spurn them and their labor and...

Best get rid of them earlier!
I was sitting on the throne the other day, gazing expansively around my bathroom after enjoying a modicum of success, passing what felt like a football, when I detected movement of...

Life: This brief dance is all we have.
Surely if an all-powerful and benign being - a god - had created this universe, he or she would have devised a better method of feeding than the predator/prey method of finding...

It has unfortunately become unfashionable to discuss the above prime movers of the mind, according to Freud and others, which combine to create a successfully functioning human person.
Where intellectual giants are...

Eastern Diamondback Rattlesnake Inland Taipan Gaboon Viper King Cobra Black Mamba As one does, I was lying in bed thinking about snakes this morning. Before you lot start reading something Freudian into that, my...

Many readers in HP and outside have read my articles on snakes and other reptiles, as well as those on spiders and scorpions.
You will have seen I usually advise people not to own dangerous pets, both for their sake...

This is a small story about my one-year association with this compact yet tough little off-roader, the Suzuki Jimny. I bought this little machine after my huge (by British standards) Citroen C5 diesel became unfixable...

The first article I wrote for Hubpages was about my two budgerigars which I had just acquired. The main thrust of my hub was less to do with keeping cage birds - of which I had no experience - but about getting a pet,...

Typican brownfield site. You can see why builders would prefer green belt land Green belt land. Under the gun for development under Cameron
If you are following this story, you will remember the British High...

By god, is that another banker, er, remora? The remora with sand-shark Michael Parkinson. Retired but won't lie down. Meg Ryan called him a "nut," and he upset Ali.
One of the most enterprising denizens of the...

Since I wrote this sad story early today, reason has triumphed temporarilly at least and the High Court has issued an injuction in the 11th hour, (6pm today) blocking Basildon Council and its baying balliffs from...

Britain's largely discredited Labour government, and its last PM, Gordon Brown, left Britain in an unholy financial mess. But far and away the most staggeringly inept act by the saturnine Brown was to sell off nearly...

Unless you are a double for Brad Pitt, your surname is Beckham, Rooney or Wales, you men have little hope of meeting a mate on Dating Sites.
For the longest while, I thought it was all my fault: I was too old, too...

The Basildon site...Looks pretty neat, doesn't it? Cameron and Pickles. Looks as if Pickles needs a better lifestyle himself, maybe pulling a caravan! (Stop Press. In the last half hour. The Travellers lost their...

To paraphrase the non-pc old saw about a certain nationality and bastards, it is equally true to say "All spiders and scorpions are arachnids, but not all arachnids are spiders and scorpions." In fact there are quite a...

Living in England it is heartening to see the many well kept dogs. Not so visible are the thousands of badly treated and abandoned creatures; those bred for dog-fighting and more used in animal experiments, the last...

We just begin to think we understand what's going on around us in the universe. We get comfortable with the "Big Bang," "Black Holes," and "Pulsars." Most of us agree life follows Evolution's directives and that the...

Sharks, 60; Man, 60-Million!!
We all saw reports of the bather taken off a beach in the Seychelles this week, another of the few shark attacks that occur every year around the world.
It was a tragic incident, no...

“Reeling and Writhing” and Writer’s Block.
Isn't a fiction novel a wonderful thing? You pick it up and, immediately, other lives start up; protagonists awaken, like the animals in that museum movie. You stop...

Malthus: A Brilliant, Yet Flawed Mind.
The Reverent Thomas Robert Malthus (1766-1834) was one of the most influential men of the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Many books have been written about him and his...

One of the nastiest thing that can happen to you in most British shops is a salesperson slinking up to you undetected and asking if you need any help. In the US, when I lived there, such cooperation by those whose...

Unless you live in the middle of the Amazon rain forest, or on some forgotten Pacific atoll, you will have seen the British rioting on TV, or in the newspapers. You will have been suitable shocked, tut-tut-tutting over...

Not so pretty, but many of us will have them for company for a long time! Answering Our Poets in Your Own Verse.
Although a lot of it is crude in that it obeys the internal rhythms and forces of the author, rather...

The Folksy Names, Describing Degrees of Precipitation, are Capitalized, in Itallics..
If any visitor or researcher of the British Isles has any doubt that they were wet and windy places to live, he or she only has to...

This news is bound to aflame anew those who see Britain’s monarchy as nothing more than a disgusting rip-off and something the country could do well without in times of recession, belt-tightening and depression (the...

﻿It is almost universally accepted, at least in our little corner of it, that a smile signals a positive and happy emotion. In fact, so much so, that kids, especially girls, are encouraged to smile more and they will...

About as far from its ancestors, the wolves, as it could be, the Lhasa Apso, seen from my kitchen window, barks at a passing kid on a bike. Just a little fluff ball, it would have trouble challenging a chipmunk in the...

British celebrityJade Goody rests in Epping Forest Burial Park as husband, Jack Tweed, lays a wreath. Photo credit. zimbio.com
My friend, Sue, was called to a funeral yesterday of one of her husband's old football...

(Please Note: Readers would also benefit from reading the article on this subject by hubber Spirit Whisperer, as he explains more clearly the odd behaviour of particles in the experiments mentioned herein, as well as...

Poetry and the Human Condition. Pt 6: The Body.
It is not particularly common to find verse written about the human body and its functions in illness and health. We find quite a lot about the human mind and the soma...

For those who have visited Mexico, they know that amor and borracheros (love and drunkenness) often go hand-in-hand. Gringo males, perhaps not used to the gorgeous and exotic Latin mujer (woman) fall in love, spelled...

I have used eBay extensively, in a modest way, if that's not an oxymoron, over the last 8 years. Ever since I foolishly returned to the UK, in fact.
Part of my becoming involved with this vast, world-wide auction site...

Poetry wears many hats: has many uses. I don't need to list them; think of anything we do, have done or one day might do, and poetry has chronicled all the whatever's and brought them into print. One of the strongest...

North America is part of one huge continent. Africa may be larger, Russia with Siberia and all the satellites may compete; Brazil, added to the other South American nations may give the ‘States (with Mexico, etc.,) a...

Good poetry still finds its way into print these days. But seldom does great poetry become published any more. There is a multitude of reasons for this, most of them are obvious.-, and I'll let you figure them out. One...

Those who seek truth in verse have had a love/hate relationship with deities since man first began using the written word on stone tablets and cave walls. Poets have lauded their gods, cajoled them and even threatened...

Mexican Flame Knee Tarantula Eye invaded with urticating hairs On Friday, I published a small article on the Bombardier Beetle and its amazing defence system. Today's leggy protagonist, the Tarantula, reveals another...

Mankind learned back in feudal times how to defend himself, set in a backdrop of knights, castles, moats; attackers were douched in boiling oil and the cheapest and most effective, a drenching in boiling water.
...

I know nothing whatsoever about the subject of this small hub, written in hot blood after a two-hour battle with an implacable enemy which eventually, grudgingly, yielded, but not before putting about 2 years I cannot...

Most of us accept that the engine driving life is evolution using natural selection to keep us all damp-nosed and sparkly-eyed. Those creationists reading this might as well close the page now, because there is little...

Sometimes referred to as the "King Bug," although it is a fly and not a true bug at all, is the Dobson Fly, a native of North and South America.
It belongs to the order of Megaloptera, which contain some 300 separate...

The Poet Dallies With the Creatures.
We are all enamoured with those gorgeous creatures the butterflies. But, mostly unseen in the blackness of the night, the butterfly's brothers on the wing, the moths, hold sway....

The real Diogenese didn't care for pomp and circumstance either...wasn't much room for it in his barrel! Millions of British people are anxiously waiting for this Friday, April 29th., to celebrate the wedding of Prince...

She finally put us out of our misery! You have to keep abreast of these proverbs! One of the most popular sayings in sports over the last 40 or so years is, "It ain't over 'till the fat lady sings." Although first use...

HMS Victory now, alongside in Portsmouth docks This great ship of the line in better days... As Britain further dismantles her war-machine, in the vain hope that hiding our head under the soil will give our enemies...

These cheap tiny cages are far too small for permanent living These birds are far too confined This is a hanging fish bowl. The owner shuld be hanged! What has this poor soul done to deserve this? Now, that's a...

Tokyo Quake. Some fires but little damage In contrast, Mexico City was devastated. Lydia, apparently, was a normal, healthy teenager. Her school grades were a little above average; she enjoyed sports and related well...

Gaddafi. Planning his next move? The blooms of this sad seeding. Are we all stark, staring bonkers in the United Kingdom? We have let this government impell this long suffering nation, without a pot to piss in, into...

“This archaic saying must be one of the most quoted in the English language. It popped into my mind for no reason this morning and I began to really wonder if it is true. I mean, the first part obviously is: sticks...